The Paradoxes of Civil Society

Bibliographic Data

ID2356472
AuthorsJeffrey C Alexander (0000-0003-3600-8023, University of California, Los Angeles, corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume12
Issue2
Pages115-133
Publication date1997-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0268-5809 • E-ISSN: 1461-7242
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/026858097012002001
OpenAlexW2004380526
LanguageEN
Citations received56
References cited33

Emerging from recent social and political struggles, the notion of 'civil society' can and should be transformed into a sociological concept on both the theoretical and empirical level. This means going beyond the Marxist and social democratic understandings of civil society as a world of selfish economic interests, on the one hand, and beyond the liberal equation of civil society with legal protections of individual rights, on the other. Civil society should be conceptualized as a realm of solidarity, a 'we-ness' that simultaneously affirms the sanctity of the individual and these individuals' obligations to the collectivity. The solidary sphere, in principle and in practice, can be differentiated not only from markets and states but from such other noncivil spheres as religion, family and science. Yet differentiation does not preclude tension and conflict over boundaries. Civil solidarity is 'compromised' and 'distorted' by these boundary relations, and also by competing, more primordial definitions of community, such as race, language, nation, territory, and ethnicity. While civil society can be identified with 'universal reason' in a philosophical sense, in socio-logical terms it must be articulated by more concrete and identity-related symbolic constructs. For this reason, socio-logical approaches to civil society must be tied to cultural sociology, to theories of symbolic codes and narratives

Civil society · Democracy · Epistemology · Marxist philosophy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Solidarity · Law · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Social Capital and Networks · Social Media and Politics